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THE INDEPENDENT TD Luke Ming Flanagan intends to bring forward legislation that would legalise cannabis in Ireland later this year and says that he himself still smokes the drug himself – but not in this country.
Flanagan has said that his office has been working on a new bill that could include provisions that make it legal for people to grow cannabis plants in their own home as well as purchase the drug legally.
Of his own habits, he told TheJournal.ie this week: “When I go to Holland and if I go to country that deems it acceptable I smoke it, but not in the Republic at the moment.”
Although the legislation – due for debate in the Dáil in late October – is almost certain to be defeated by the government majority Flanagan said the main purpose of the introducing the bill is to generate debate and expose those TDs who speak out against it.
“Let’s say you do have a situation where people vote it down, well at least we will have had three hours debate over a two day period in Dáil Éireann and people will get to hear serious arguments [in favour] and I will get to hear the counter arguments from anyone else.
“And I will get to see numerous TDs stand up who no doubt in their youth, and maybe even still, use cannabis who will speak out against it.”
The TD dismissed arguments that legalisation would mean the introduction of another drug in this country, saying that arguments that someone who drinks alcohol will then smoke cannabis are not justified. “If they smoke cannabis they won’t be drinking five or six pints,” he said.
“Suggesting an aggregate effect is unrealistic. If I was working in the alcohol industry I would worry about cannabis being legalised. It would give people another choice.”
Flanagan was speaking ahead of his appearance at the seventh annual Legalise Cannabis Ireland protest which will get at under way at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square in Dublin at 2pm today.
Protesters will be making their way over to Dáil Éireann. Flanagan and a number of others will speak at the march with organisers putting forward the argument that cannabis sales could yield in excess of €1 billion in tax revenue if it were legalised.
The Roscommon-South Leitrim TD’s own estimates put the figure at €480 million which would take into account savings in the criminal justice system and taxation.
“Really it’s very up in the air that figure,” he said. “The only way you will ultimately establish how much [it will raise ] is if you legalise it.“Within six months to 18 months we will have definitive results out of what has happened in Colorado and Washington where they have legalised cannabis. By then we’ll have very good data about how successful or otherwise it has been.”
Earlier this year, the Irish Medical Board gave the green light for a cannabis-based spray, Sativex, to be used by MS sufferers in Ireland but the government has not yet brought forward legislation that would be needed for the spray to be sold in Ireland.
Presently, the Misuse of Drugs Act prohibits the production and possession of cannabis-based medicines in the same way as cannabis itself.
This was actually the work of a secret government experiment underground. There are 8 letter in bulls**te, minus 1 is 7. 6 letters in “Madrid” plus 1 is 7, 7+7 is 14, same number alonso used to wear at Liverpool. Therefore the UK is the next target for fart bombs…
The cult of Frank!!
Went to the alhambra in granada years ago. The architects hundreds of years ago factored these quakes into their building designs and placed lead inside the stone columns. This enabled them to sway slightly. Clever lads in fairness. Well worth a visit.
The earthquake that struck Lorca was not 10km deep, it was only 1 km deep. This was extremely unusual. It explains why this modest earthquake caused so much damage. Today’s earthquake is more typical, at a depth of 8 miles. It should not be as bad.
Some scientists claimed the Lorca earthquake was provoked by water wells that removed ground water, that the removal of water reduced pressure that otherwise clamped the fault shut, allowing it to move.
http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/spanish-quake-was-manmade-study-3266682.html
We had a large 7.1 quake in the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge Off the west coast Of Ireland on 13th
That’s big for the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, very interesting. It was on Charlie-Gibbs fracture zone. Here’s a nice article about the earthquake.
Ay caramba!
Paul Murphy is on his way, he blamed the quake on the local police!
I knew it wasn’t the journal reporting this when I spotted they didn’t mix moment magnitude and the Richter scale.
And the mixture of metric and imperial.
It’s maddening. Nobody has used the Richter scale in decades.
The moment magnitude scale (abbreviated as MMS; denoted as MW or M) is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of the area that slipped.The scale was developed in the 1970s to succeed the 1930s-era Richter magnitude scale (ML). Even though the formulae are different, the new scale retains the familiar continuum of magnitude values defined by the older one. The MMS is now the scale used to estimate magnitudes for all modern large earthquakes by the United States Geological Survey.
There’s absolutely no threat from Fionna Foil so long as Mehole is in charge
Do you know any kind of earthquake early warning app? I found one here http://remotegun.com/earthquake-early-warning-system but it is under development right now. do you know another one?
All hail the glorious frank…
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